Guest: David E. Kapell, founder of Kapell Real Estate & Antiques and former mayor of Greenport

Dave Kapell wrote this about the foreclosure crisis:

“THERE are many factors behind the mortgage crisis, but there is only one simple explanation for why we have failed to solve it. Any effort to help homeowners by forgiving some of their loans is said to create a moral hazard, rendering it politically toxic. But without help, homeowners continue to struggle, foreclosures continue to mount and the housing industry continues to drag down the economy.” From Struggling Owners to Stable Renters, New York Times, January 19, 2011

Topics:

What else can we do about healthcare – well – we do know there are a million things that can be done to make it more efficient and cost less – we’ll talk with Jim Champy who has worked with hospitals to reengineer their processes and SAVE money. Is this something we can all agree on?

Healthcare bill – ok, ok; they did the vote to repeal healthcare which meant nothing. But, they’re really going to defund it. Tie it up in courts. Is this really what the public wants??

…what’s equally undeniable is that it comes amid a gradually mounting litany of violence directed against “liberal” and government targets, effectively suggesting a fresh onset of domestic terrorism from the extremist American Right.

They go on to list a series of events, beginning with these:

– July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how “liberals” are “destroying America,” walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.

Not only that, the language from the right is increasingly casting liberals as “America-hating, totalitarian, domestic enemies,” as described by David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix, in his article Desert Storm: How the GOP and the Sunset State nurture the lunatic fringe. Conservatives say the words are to be taken as metaphors or even entertainment. If they don’t mean anything, why do they say them? And, where should society draw the line?

And, how would conservatives react if liberals started showing up at political rallies with guns?